Jeff and Jeanne

Dynamite didn’t make it through the night.  So, we had another sea-side service for him this morning. 

I’m not sure what went wrong.  I’ve never had this kind of trouble with fish before.  I guess it’s back to the drawing board.  I’ll keep the tank with the live rock and crabs going.  The next fish will definitly go through QT before going in.  I also need to get some water tests, since I could have something out of whack with one of them and not know it.

This weekend Dynamite has taken a turn for the worse.  It started with little white spots on Friday.  So, Friday night I set up a hospital tank for him and got some Ick medication.  On Saturday, I woke up to a wet spot in the basement.  Turns out it was right below the new hospital tank.  The brand new tank leaks.  Grrr.  So, I moved Dynamite to a bucket and sealed up the tank with some silicone.  Today I moved him back into the tank.  He’s not well.  It appears that he has some fin rot too.  His tail, anal, and dorsal fins all seem to be in poor condition.  So, I guess I will be going to the pet store again tomorrow for some fin rot meds.  Actually, that all depends on if he makes it through the night.  He doesn’t look well.

I’ll keep you posted.

These too are in the aquarium, but they’re good worms. Some of them are feather dusters. They’re filter feeders. They make little tubes, then pop out and look like feather dusters. Here’s a picture of the coolest one we have: If you can’t quite see it there, here’s a close-up: Don’t let the size of the picture fool you. The blue part is only about a half an inch long. Maybe a bit longer, but not much. There are a bunch of other smaller ones too. But, they are not as pretty. The tube is grey and the “duster” portion is white or clear. Not to mention only about 1/4″ across.

We’ve also got some bristle worms. They’re kind of ugly. They’re reddish brown and have rows of “bristles” on them… hence the name. There’s mixed info about them on the web. Some people say they are bad cuz they’ll eat corals. I don’t have any, so no big deal there. Some people say they are beneficial detritus eaters. Yup, that means they eat fish poo. So, that’s good. I think I’ll leave them. Besides, they’re hard to catch.

It’s always fun to see what pops up next with the live rock.

I came home for lunch today to find Spot laying sideways on the bottom of the tank. I guess saltwater fish don’t float when they cork. It had been acting strange the last day or so, rubbing on the rock and such.

We had a burial at sea.

I hope Dynamite will be ok.

And a couple of fish!

Ok, before you start making any comments, you should know that they all came from the local pet store, and that the crabs are Blue Legged Hermit Crabs. We’ve got three of them now. Along with a Royal Gramma and a Percula Clown.

For those of you that have been by the house in the last couple of months, I’m sure you noticed the 20 gallon fish tank in the eating area all set up with water and no fish. Well no more. Last weekend (January 26th) we made a trip to Rochester’s Reef in Grand Haven and came home with Spot, Dynamite, Larry, Moe and Curly.

Spot is the Royal Gramma. We named it spot because of the little black dot on front of it’s dorsal fin. We started with Dot, but Spot came out accidentally a couple times, so we switched to Spot. It seemed more natural. This is one quick fish too. Spot can shoot across the tank in the blink of an eye. And you wouldn’t believe the size of the mouth on this thing. When the crab gets into the lower hole in the rock, Spot gets a bit defensive and lets the crab know by biting the shell. No harm comes to either of them. But it’s fun to watch.

Dynamite is the Clown. I came of with the name in honor of Rudy Grahek, aka Dynamite the Clown. Dynamite the Clown was a local clown while I was growing up, famous throughout Northern Michigan. He lives near Reed City. In fact, we would pass his house every day on the way to school. It seemed like a fitting name. He’s fun to watch. He likes to get up behind the overflow of the filter, laying sideways, play peek-a-boo? The first time he did this, Jeanne thought he was sick. Turns out he’s just playing.

The hermit crabs are named after the Three Stooges. If you watch them for a few minutes, you’d know why. They do some strange things! Physical comedy is definitely their thing. They have been seen climbing (and falling off of) the large rock in the aquarium. Occasionally they fight. One night the largest of the three (Curly) was running laps around the rock. He would climb up through the lower hole in the rock to the back, come around the right side, then back through the hole. He must have done that a dozen or more times. He finally stopped when the light turned off for the night. These guys aren’t very big either. Shell and all, they are maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch long. They are in a constant search for food and new homes. Every conical shell that was in the tank (the bottom of the tank is covered in crushed sea shells) has been picked over and moved a bunch of times. In fact the smallest crab (Larry) has switched shells at least twice. We’ll need to get some new ones soon as they will shortly outgrow the shells they have.

They’ve all made it a week, so no more warranty! Not that I expected them to kick off. I feed them twice a day. Usually at lunch time and again in the evening. They get a mixture of a flake food and frozen brine shrimp. They really like the brine shrimp. They don’t actually get them frozen. I take a small chunk of the frozen shrimp and thaw them in a dish of water out of the tank. Then I dribble them in over a couple minute period. The fish love them. I’m sure the crabs get some too since the fish don’t always eat the partial pieces. The crabs seem to like the flake food too. They catch the left overs and greedily munch them down. I guess it’s mostly meat products anyway, so why not!

That’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll keep updating on any new additions. I’ve taken a few pictures, if you want to see them all, check here. I just noticed I have no pictures of the tank as a whole. I’ll get some and put them up later.